Senior Payroll & People Ops Leader — AI-Driven, Cross-Border

Decisive Point; Canada; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

AI-powered payroll insights

Competitive benefits package

Career growth in a high-growth SaaS

Job summary

Versaterm in Canada is seeking a Senior Manager, Payroll and People Operations to lead payroll, benefits, leaves, compensation, and HR operations across U.S., Canada, and Quebec entities. You will personally run payroll when needed and build a reliable People Operations function with strong governance and AI-enabled insights.

You will report to the CHRO, lead day-to-day program management, and drive continuous improvement in service delivery while maintaining compliance across jurisdictions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Finance, or a related field.
• 10+ years of progressive payroll, benefits, and HR operations experience, including multi‑entity, cross-border (U.S./Canada) operations; Quebec payroll experience is a strong asset.
• A minimum of 3–5 years of demonstrated people leadership experience
• In-depth knowledge of U.S. and Canadian payroll, tax, and benefits regulations, and familiarity with pay equity and pay transparency requirements
• Working knowledge of compensation practices and benchmarking, or strong aptitude and motivation to build this capability
• Experience owning or administering an HRIS (BambooHR or similar); comfortable as a technical system owner, not just an end user
• Familiarity with Employer of Record (EOR) arrangements (Rippling or similar) and job classification/FLSA exemption analysis is an asset
• A genuine, daily user of AI tools (Claude, Copilot) in your own work — for research, drafting, analysis, and problem‑solving. AI should already be part of how you work, not something you're learning on the job
• Prior experience operating as both a player and a coach — comfortable personally executing a payroll run, not just managing others who do
• Strong vendor management and project management skills
• High degree of discretion and professionalism in handling confidential payroll, benefits, and compensation information
• Excellent communication and organizational skills; able to manage several complex priorities simultaneously under deadline pressure

Responsibilities

• Own and optimize payroll processing across U.S., Canada, and Quebec entities.
• Oversee benefits, leaves, compensation, and HR operations with GDPR-like controls.
• Own HRIS (BambooHR) administration and data integrity.
• Lead annual open enrollment and cross-border payroll/vendor integrations.
• Manage audits and reporting (EEO-1, etc.) for payroll and HR operations.
• Partner with Finance, IT, and CHRO on governance and budgeting.
• Lead a multi-entity payroll team and coach staff for growth.
• Embed AI into payroll analysis, compensation modeling, and policy drafting.

Skills

Payroll leadership

Benefits management

HR operations

Cross-border HR

AI in workflows

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in HR/Business

PLP or CPP designation

Tools

BambooHR

ADP

Rippling

Job description

Versaterm in Canada is seeking a Senior Manager, Payroll and People Operations to lead payroll, benefits, leaves, compensation, and HR operations across U.S., Canada, and Quebec entities. You will personally run payroll when needed and build a reliable People Operations function with strong governance and AI-enabled insights.

You will report to the CHRO, lead day-to-day program management, and drive continuous improvement in service delivery while maintaining compliance across jurisdictions.